The Rosedale Incident

I finally watched the video of the beating of Chrissy Lee Polis, a transvestite/transgender 22-year-old, by two black teenage girls in the now-infamous McDonaldÆs restaurant in Rosedale.

It happened last week. We talked about it the last two days on the show, but I knew watching the attack û recorded on the cell phone of a male McDonaldÆs worker û would be hard to take. It isnÆt for people who sensibilities are fine-tuned. Ah, well, mine are not.

Maybe itÆs just me, but the determination, however inept, of the two black girls to continue the vicious assault on the white victim for several minutes, despite a half-hearted intervention by a store employee and an attempt by a middle-aged woman to end the attack, was quite remarkable.

The video was uploaded to You Tube (because thatÆs what witnesses to violent street crime do these days û often even if theyÆve been part of the group doing the crime). But You Tube took it down quickly, being owned by Google, a devoutly liberal company which frowns on publicizing items that may tarnish the image of a ôprotected group.ö

It was too late, though, to make this incident go away. Matt Drudge featured the video and the story behind it on his influential web site, and it ôwent viralö as they say.

The reactions from commenters follow a time-line. The earliest, not know the victim was a transgender person, viewed it as another in a long list of videos showing black street violence against whites. Later, as the news came of PolisÆs gender status, some of the posts glommed onto the idea that the assault was sparked by her use of a womanÆs rest room while equipped with male plumbing tools.

And there were reports that the cause was that she spoke to one of the girlÆs ôman,ö though it appears he initiated the conversation. Whatever the reason, it wasnÆt enough to justify this extended beat-down that ended with the victim in apparent convulsions on the floor.

There was a rally last night outside the restaurant by members of the transgender community, who allege the beating was a ôhate crimeö against one of their own, because of her transgenderness (or whatever you call it).

The Baltimore Sun editorializes that the ôvicious beating of a transgender woman demands condemnation from the community.ö The newspaper says the incident has Baltimore County ôbeing held up to ridicule all over the world as a hotbed of intolerance.ö

Sorry, guys, but thatÆs ridiculous. Violent black street crime has been recorded routinely for several years in cities around the country and in some overseas. Before technology allowed the uploading of videos to the Internet, it was widespread, just not widely disseminated for viewing.

What the video shows are two black females beating a white customer while the black workers stand by and watch, one of them taking the video in question.

One black male provides brief, ineffective intervention. The assailants leave the store, then return and resume their apparent attempt to stomp the life out of the victim.

Near the end, as Chrissy Polis writhes in an apparent epileptic seizure, the camera operator repeatedly warns the attackers to leave before the police get there. He has apparently been fired for his role in this incident.

The older of the attackers, 18-year-old Teonna Monae Brown, has been charged in the attack. The other is a 14-year-old whose identity is being withheld because, well, sheÆs just a kid, although a violent one.

The Brown woman was arrested and charged with assault in an incident that began in that same McDonalds last year. Charges were dropped by the victim in that case.

The Sun editorial bemoans the failure this year of the General Assembly to toughen the stateÆs anti-discrimination law to further protect transgender individuals, who are already covered by language making it illegal to discriminate against gays, lesbians and bisexuals.

Would such a law have prevented this assault? Not a chance. But public officials, says the newspaper, must ôsummon the courage to declare that there is nothing wrong or strange about transgender people and that they should be treated with the same respect and dignity accorded to anyone else.ö

Yes, and we should pray for world peace and an end to that horrible thing called Death.

If this is pursued as a hate crime, it will be because of the transgender identity of the victim, not because of the racial angle. What must be bothersome about the case to liberals is that it is a crime committed by two members of one protected group on one member of another protected group.

But itÆs just another routine kind of thing in the ever-expanding ghetto. Check out Fred Reed on this story.